Beginnings...

This post contains a basic introduction to this C# Ninja blog. Here I describe it's intended purpose, audience and write a little about the author.

There is no information about the C# language in this post. Just a little Hello from me.

Introduction to the Blog:
Marvelous: I have a new job

A bit less marvelous: I need to switch from C/C++ on Linux/UNIX to C# on Windows

Very much less marvelous: I have about 3 weeks to learn C# sharp before I have to show up and look minimally competent. Ouch!

I have started this blog with the intention of writing notes as I go through the process of learning a new language and syntax. The blog will mainly function as an aide memoir for myself. If others find it useful I am happy to share the knowledge that I am gaining, but it is unlikely that I will slow down or make allowances for newcomers. I am a seasoned programmer and make no apologies for the things that I need to achieve very quickly here.

Hopefully I should be able to move the posts from the basics, through intermediate knowledge, to advanced coding styles and techniques over the next couple of years as I learn on my feet.

Amstrad BASIC on the CPC464

Who am I?
I am the Bit Ninja! Ha!

I have been programming since I was 8-years old. I started in Amstrad BASIC on the CPC464 and moved through other languages like Logo (high-school turtle programming) and Atari ST BASIC until I arrived at machine code and assembly language whilst trying to hack the copy protection on a game (just for the fun of it) as a precocious 13-year old.

I'm now well into my 30s and have been through a red-brick university in the UK as both an undergraduate and postgraduate in engineering and sciences. As an aside to my academic disciplines I have found that being able to program in a high-speed scientific language (C/C++) and a 'getting things done' language (BASH/Perl) has given me the ability to work fast and intelligently, delegating out the dull jobs to the computer for processing whilst I sit and think about what the previous result meant to the project.

I have worked for a couple of Fortune 500 companies as an electronic engineer and as a software engineer, and I have worked in academia as a lecturer, a researcher and a scientist. I have been very lucky in my career so far to have been gainfully employed without a break since leaving high-school, and I have found that being able to use a computer well and really understand what it was doing has made me invaluable to most enterprises that I have been involved in.

Hopefully, this little challenge of learning a new language (and completely different way of working) will be good fun, and I can share some useful knowledge that I pick up along the way.

Let's see how we get on...

BN